The Adara Group has announced the publication of an outcomes paper about their world-first Hospital to Home (H2H) newborn follow-up programme. It demonstrated that H2H is feasible and acceptable in a rural Ugandan setting. The study highlighted the potential of H2H in resource-limited settings to improve health outcomes, caregiver engagement and community perceptions of high-risk newborn care.
H2H is designed to help small and sick babies survive and thrive in the hospital and after they are discharged home. The programme strengthens hospital discharge processes, provides comprehensive parent education, strengthens lactation and breastfeeding practices, and promotes care that encourages healthy brain development. It also provides regular at-home follow-up support to these infants for six months after discharge through a network of community health workers. H2H is the first programme of its kind to pair inpatient newborn care with at-home follow-up support in a resource-limited setting.
The study showcased that health personnel and community health workers in low- and middle-income countries can acquire the knowledge and skills to support small and sick newborns. It also found there were significant improvements in health outcomes including higher vaccination completion (88.5% vs. 76.9%) and exclusive breastfeeding rates (42% vs 6.6%).
“The publication of this paper marks a significant milestone for Hospital to Home, showcasing the programme’s potential to improve outcomes for high-risk newborns in Uganda and beyond,” said Dr Susan Tino, Adara’s Director of Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. “Helping newborns survive and thrive has always been central to Adara’s mission. This achievement reflects the unwavering commitment of our teams over the past five years to pioneer a unique newborn follow-up programme.”
The programme also improved healthcare workers’ knowledge, confidence and collaboration with caregivers, leading to stronger family-centred care. Both caregivers and healthcare workers reported H2H as beneficial, with high participation and engagement in home visits. Additionally, H2H shifted community perceptions about the survivability of high-risk newborns, increasing caregiver willingness to seek medical care and reducing stigma associated with small or sick infants.
“Before, many small or sick babies didn’t survive because the families didn’t know the danger signs or couldn’t reach the hospital,” said Prossy Namugeere , a Hospital to Home community health worker. “Now we visit the babies at home to check they are healthy and teach mothers to care for them. This study illustrates with data the impact I have seen with my own eyes for the past five years.”
Adara will now leverage these findings to further develop and expand H2H to ensure more small and sick newborns survive and thrive. This includes the adaption of H2H for public facilities across Uganda in collaboration with the Ugandan Ministry of Health.
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